DramatistDreamer

I'm surprised those guys could regain their focus! At one point, even Frances yelled "It can't be that good!" to laughter from the crowd.

Just a sex romp was going on next door to the court where the match was being played. Apparently, the crowd watching could hear it and so could the man doing commentary, who at first, thought it was someone watching an adult movie on their phone.

omg @Soapsuds You missed a Challenger match! You guys, this Challenger match between Frances Tiafoe and Mitchell Krueger is crazy! And it has absolutely nothing to do with what's going on on the court.

Somehow I forgot to post this when it was speculation but it looks like we are closer to seeing this happen now. Sources: The Murdochs Are Turning Against Bill O’Reilly

It's interesting, so far, I'm hearing words like "shift" rather than decrease and I think this is intentional. Perhaps the numbers won't drastically change but the fields where the visas are issued might. Call me cynical, but with the way the Trump administration moves, it wouldn't surprise me if the visas are shifted in favor of industries where the Trump family has a stake and therefore a possibility for financial gain. Here is what Blooberg has to say on the matter. Trump Seeks Shift in Visa Allotments Key to Tech Outsourcing

I hope this is simply the fit of the shirt that is making Milos look like he has a rounded belly.

Gilles is forever Basic! @Soapsuds Tsonga looks like he's carrying baby weight. It can happen, so I've heard. According to Yannick Noah, Chardy was chosen for the French Davis Cup team for the tie they played a few weeks ago (over Simon presumably) because Noah thought he was fit and had been playing well lately. Perhaps Chardy's success in DC a few weekends ago has carried over to today's match. Still, I don't know how far he can get in this field.

Housing starts are declining US housing starts total 1.215M in March vs. 1.25M starts expected "Single-family starts in the Midwest declined 35 percent, the largest drop since January 2014, to their lowest level since August 2015." The irony is that, at the same time, emerging markets are experiencing a "boomlet" (not a full-on boom since countries like Brazil continue to have political instability that affects their markets). Emerging Markets Are Bouncing Back From a Six-Year Slowdown The Mexican peso, which plummeted immediately after Trump's election, is now back up to its full value. China has surpassed its growth expectations, mainly due to a surge in orders in shipping containers, in their domestic markets as the Chinese now have the largest shipping/port industry in cities like Shanghai. It will be interesting if other BRIC countries begin to see their markets rise again. Whoa be unto the U.S. if/when Russia begins to emerge from recession- they will be flexing big time!

I could never really be bothered with Simon. When you're that basic, you should at least be able to capitalize when opportunities fall into your lap like a Konta or a Kerber does. I was only able to see about 3 games and I saw the precise moment when Gilles started playing nervy, panicked shots and promptly closed out the link, knowing full-well that he'd probably never recover and I was right. Chardy and Pouille look like the only two Frenchman who have a chance of making an impression in Monte Carlo this year. I knew Monfils would skip this year and most of my enthusiasm went bye-bye once it was confirmed that he wouldn't be playing, then Kyrgios missing and even Gasquet who usually at least makes the Quarterfinals in Monte Carlo skipped this year. Tsonga probably should've skipped. I completely forgot about him until Sunday when I saw his name on the entry list. I took one look at him and knew he was in no condition to grind on clay for points. Hey, maybe he's hoping to play himself into shape? Paire just got blasted by Haas' wife Sara for comments that Paire made about Haas after Paire's loss.

The Trump self-enrichment train doesn't stop. On the same day Ivanka Trump dines with Chinese President Xi, her trademarks are approved. What a coincidink! Ivanka Trump got Chinese trademarks approved, then dined with China’s president Despite the fact that, until March of this year, very little had changed economically, A majority of Republicans polled are now convinced that the economy has been in a much better place for the past 12 months. In October, the same poll found that the majority of Republicans believed that the economy was in a worse place. Odd. Very. odd. What else to say except, now I know why the Consumer Confidence Rating reports were up over the last few months. One poll shows Trump's stunning impact on the way Republicans feel about the US economy

Yes, I'm being petty here.

Darn playlist feature. Fixed it. Thanks.

That always kind of made me chuckle too. Also sort of a "Clean up this unsightly mess!" look. It's coming up on a year since Prince passed and in honor of his musical genius, I'm posting this episode from 1985 where at 18:00, we see Lily and Dusty bopping out to Let's Go Crazy.

Guys, There is an actual poll on the White House website asking of what agencies and departments to eliminate! This is real life! Reorganizing the Executive Branch: We Need Your Input!

What have the American voters allowed to be installed in the WH? Just awful people with awful associates. And did he mention Gossip Girl as if it is a news publication??!

Aww, that's mean but it made me anyway! I heard part of the post match interview where the Bryan bros' father had the nerve to ask Johnson how it felt to beat a great "clay courter like Fernando Verdasco". Clay courter??! Hasn't Fernando's best results been on hard courts?

@Soapsuds I'm guessing that NBC didn't want to bid as high as they would need to in order to keep some access to Wimbledon, they probably thought the French would be cheaper since it is less popular to many American sports fans. Oh well, you get what you paid for. Yeah, so glad for Vicki as well. She's had some challenging times, hopefully she can start to build on this. I don't know what's going on with Bouchard. She never held serve once in the match.

I hate how NBC often treated tennis in the last few years of its exclusive run but I do miss Breakfast at Wimbledon! I miss being able to turn to a simple network channel and watch the Finals, especially CBS with the U.S. Open and the Finals of Wimbledon-- they generally got that right. I definitely miss the US Open on USA! I watched this match on a very wonky USTA livestream.

Kyrgios is also not playing MC. I think Monfils considered it because up until yesterday, Monte Carlo still had him on the list of entrants but I knew he wouldn't be playing days ago, he wants to make sure his body is fully recovered, presumably for Madrid and Rome as well as RG.

Great result for Ernesto Escobedo! I'm interested in seeing how he'll fare on the European red clay now.

The aspect that bothered me was the Thiel part (for so many reasons) but it sounds as if he gamed the system to get dual citizenship so he could exploit NZ to build more personal wealth, albeit with the government's help.

Well, he just lost that set to Escobedo. Wonder what will be left in the 2nd?

@JuliajmsBy the way, that wasn't the government speaking, I believe but a head of a New Zealand based tech company.

Have you seen the size and topography of New Zealand compared to the U.S.? Canada has more land than people. I have a cousin who recently moved to an area farther away from Toronto and it was virtually undeveloped when she moved in, she only had a few neighbors. I can't think of any such place outside of a major U.S. city that literally has undeveloped raw, land with barely any people living there!